Japanese Imports

A Japanese-made English neologism, cosplaying is short for costume playing.

It began at the comics marts in Akihabara, the bustling, day-glo Tokyo neighborhood known for electronics retailers and cafes catering to Otaku, obsessive fans of manga and anime. (The Otaku provide the name for Baltimore's annual convention, Otakon, which will be held in August and is even bigger than Washington's.) In Japan, cosplay simply involves creating elaborate costumes of characters and modeling them. But in the 15 years since the first U.S. manga/anime convention -- in, of course, Anaheim, Calif., home of Disneyland -- cosplaying has undergone another of those trans-Pacific mutations.

At first, Diederichs recalls, Katsucon's cosplay event attracted barely a dozen participants. "Because they were so few people, and it was the main program for Saturday night before the concert, people would perform skits or comedy shows onstage. Now it's the largest event of any anime convention, not just ours," Diederichs says. "Some people come just for the cosplay. It's gotten to the point where we actually have to put limits on the number of people who can go up on stage and the time they can use to perform these skits. I've seen skits with 45 people in them, choreographed to music, with fight scenes out of a Hollywood film.

"This is all very interesting to our Japanese guests, who are not used to this form of cosplay," he adds. "Some people will reenact scenes from the shows, or the media that they're dressing up from, and other people will put together completely original, often hilarious comedy skits, often mixing characters from different shows and genres. The whole performance aspect is a strictly American thing. You will not see that outside of this country."

Stephanie Brown, 27, a Katsucon regular who works at a martial arts school in Stafford County, estimates that she has made almost 50 cosplay outfits in the past nine years, most but not all for herself. She'll attend the 2006 convention dressed as her favorite anime character, Naga the Serpent, an avaricious sorceress featured in the "Slayers" series. "I can't really explain why I like her so much, but she cracks me up every time I see her," Brown says.

Naga is a voluptuous woman whose all-black outfit consists basically of a bikini, gloves, a cape and spiky shoulder pads. "It's really funny to do that kind of costume, because I'm a tomboy. It shocked a lot of people that I would do something like that," recalls Brown of her 1997 debut as Naga, in what she calls "a terrible costume." (She has since remade it twice.)

Brown will attend Katsucon to have fun and catch up with friends, but she coordinates costume events at two smaller conventions, Richmond's Anime Mid-Atlantic and Virginia Beach's Nekocon. ("Neko" is Japanese for cat, and cat ears are a common element in cosplay outfits.) "There are lots of reasons why people do it," Brown says of cosplaying. "But it goes down to the need to be something else for a little while."

The new American synergy with manga and anime is not just the work of inventive, irreverent fans with sewing skills. U.S. production companies have also begun to collaborate with Japanese producers, mostly of TV shows. While relatively few anime movies make it into American theaters, kid-oriented TV channels now rely heavily on the genre sometimes called "Japanimation."

"The Kids' WB completely financed a revisioning of 'Astroboy,' which was a remake of the 1960s classic," Diederichs says. "That was broadcast here several months before it hit the air in Japan. The budget for that rivaled that of some theatrical productions, and it really showed. Cartoon Network has a show called 'Teen Titans,' based on a DC Comics project. It's completely financed by Warner Brothers through Cartoon Network and shown in America and Japan at the same time. It was precedent setting."

And then there's "Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi," produced by Warner Bros. for Cartoon Network and made in Korea. "It is simply cheaper to animate in Korea," Diederichs explains. "So properties like 'The Simpsons' and such are done right alongside 'Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi.' A lot of it is Korean productions by Japanese studios with American producers and writers."

Some of these people never meet face to face, unless it's at an event like Katsucon. "We bring together the American voice actors, the American writers, the Japanese directors, the Korean animation directors," Diederichs says. "And they really show the fans how the shows come into being."

The big-eyed, brightly hued manga look has also infiltrated U.S. comics and advertising, especially for products aimed at teens and tweens. Yet American-made manga has little commercial appeal, according to Big Planet's Casazza. "Marvel really tried to capitalize on that. They did [Spider-Man love interest] Mary Jane as a teenager and stuff like that. It met with mixed results, at best. Most people who are really into manga want original Japanese, or Korean or Asian stuff. They don't want an American version of it."

At his store, Casazza says, "I've seen the interest in manga wane a little bit. Once you go through the best material, a lot of the other stuff isn't that great. And kids' interests move on. They read them for a few years, and then they move on."

Yet manga and anime fever has not cooled at Katsucon, which attracts fans mostly from the mid-Atlantic states but lures a few disciples from as far away as Australia. No wonder that more staid local institutions continue to reach out to anime fans: The Freer Gallery will present its Fourth Annual Cherry Blossom Anime Marathon on April 1, and for the first time this year, the Japan-America Society of Washington will add a "J-Pop Land" to its Sakura Matsuri (which just means "cherry blossom festival"). Although plans for the April 8 event are not complete, says Malott, president of the society, "we will most likely be featuring anime and manga ourselves. We may have some performers from Japan that are aimed more at the younger set."

Kid power also resonates in anime's homeland, where Takashi Miike recently finished his first children's film, "The Great Yokai War." The director, who's known for such gory and sexually explicit films as "D.O.A." and "Audition," has made a live-action film based on the work of influential manga pioneer Shigeru Mizuki, who incorporated Japanese folklore into his work. (To make the connection clear, the movie includes a scene in which its preadolescent hero visits the Mizuki museum in Sakaiminato, the artist's home town.)

There is perhaps no more powerful expression of manga and anime's new American following, Diederichs suggests, than the moment a Japanese writer or artist meets his or her fans at a event such as Katsucon. "It's very interesting when you see 300 12-year-olds lined up to get autographs from someone who doesn't speak the language and had no idea that his product was shown outside of his home country."

It's as if the children of Walt Disney are meeting the offspring of Katsushika Hokusai, and despite all they have in common, they are still a little bit surprised that they recognize each other.

KATSUCON 12 Friday at 8 to Sunday at 4. Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert St. NW (Metro: Woodley Park-Zoo). Most events end at midnight Friday and Saturday, but the video room operates nearly all night, with hour-long breaks about 4:30 a.m. or 5 a.m. (Some late-night fare is for adults only.) A three-day pass is $50. One-day tickets are $25 Friday, $35 Saturday and $20 Sunday. Children ages 6 to 12 half-price.http://www.katsucon.com.

Mark Jenkins writes about the semi-popular arts for The Washington Post and Washington City Paper.

Stores

Manga and anime are so mainstream now that the most popular titles are available at such mass-market retailers as Borders, Blockbuster and Barnes & Noble. Some proprietors of local comics stores admit they can't compete with the chains' selection. But smaller stores carry more offbeat material, and their employees are likely to have more expertise.

Wisconsin Avenue is the main line for local comics shops, beginning with two "big" Georgetown stores, Big Planet Comics (3145 Dumbarton St. NW; 202-342-1961) and Big Monkey Comics (1419-B Wisconsin Ave. NW; 202-333-8650). Farther north are Fantom Comics (4500 Wisconsin Ave. NW; 202-362-5051), another Big Planet (4908 Fairmont Ave., Bethesda; 301-654-6856) and Beyond Comics (701 Russell Ave., Gaithersburg; 301-216-0007). Anime is among the specialties of Dream Wizards (11772 Parklawn Dr., Rockville; 301-881-3530).

In Virginia, there's a third Big Planet (426 Maple Ave. E., Vienna; 703-242-9412), as well as Phoenix Comics & Toys (678 Elden St., Herndon; 703-437-9530) and two stores specializing in anime and manga, Anime Pavilion (115 Hillwood Ave., Suite 10, Falls Church; 703-534-1544) and Anime World (4300 Chantilly Shopping Center, Chantilly; 703-817-0550).

Among local video shops that specialize in cult material are Alexandria's Video Vault (113 S. Columbus St.; 800-828-5866), Adams Morgan's 18th Street Video (2104 18th St. NW; 202-588-0117) and Takoma Park's Video Americain (6937 Laurel Ave.; 301-270-4464).

For fans fluent in Japanese, or just interested in investigating what's available to those who are, the Daruma Japanese grocery (6931 Arlington Rd., Bethesda; 301-654-8832) rents videos. Adjoining Daruma's Rockville location (301-738-6468) is Taiga (1055 Rockville Pike; 301-738-2409), a Japanese-language bookstore and video-rental outlet.